An everyday tale of family and political life with a dollop of Formula One and various random thoughts on the side.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Leopards, Spots and the Tories

Oh dear! David Cameron has devoted much of the past few years trying to convince that the all new Conservative Party is a fluffy, tolerant organisation with a commitment to equality and diversity.

I say trying, because there have been a few banana skins for them on the way, as the real Tories, not Call me Dave's Stepford Children, have escaped from the cupboards where they've been locked to keep them out of public view, to give us all the evidence we ever needed that this leopard's spots haven't changed at all.

Even in the last week and a half, they've had an MEP deny the existence of homophobia, and a health spokesperson being revealed as a paid consultant to a private health firm. What's interesting about the Lord McColl issue is that all new fluffy right on Dave thinks that it's fine. In the same week that Daniel Hannan has been telling any American who'll listen nonsense about our NHS without the mildest rebuke from Cameron, this shows that the Tories can't be trusted to deliver universal health care if, heaven forbid, they should gain power.

Now we have Alan Scard. Never heard of him before? Well, he's the guy charged with finding a new Tory candidate for Gosport after sitting MP Sir Peter Viggers has had to resign to spend more time with his duck island. He has some interesting views on the qualities you'd look for in a candidate. The best bit is:

"when asked if he supported Conservative leader David Cameron's attempts to create more women MPs, he said: 'If they are attractive, yeah I would go for it. 'I know it's a sexist thing to say, but you could get the blokes saying ''Oh... I would vote for her because she's really attractive."

After the horse had bolted, he tried very hard to lock the stable door:

'As a proud parent of two girls the last thing I would ever want to do is say something sexist.'

I wonder if he thought he was being right on by using the word "parent" instead of "father".

The Tories are trying to portray themselves as a modern, progressive, inclusive Party, but in reality their core values remain in the 1950s.